Year 10 GCSE Support Thread

[OrangeCinnamon]

Hi all,
Can we have a thread for Year 10 support please? Even though Dd started in Y9 I have already noticed a massive ramping up in pressure and her anxiety I imagine it is a fine balance of being supportive but not a helicopter parent. How do you motivate but not nag? How do you encourage good study/revision skills without being overbearing? How can I help my Dd to be resilient....so many questions hoping for some hints, tips and support along the way.

Dd is Summer born so struggles sometimes. Her main loves are Music and the Humanities subjects. She bobs along with Maths and Science and despises French. Wants to be an international popstar, historian, writer, journo or judge! She sufffers terribly with low self esteem but hopefully this term will be able to get her on a course of cbt.

Interested that everyone seems to have predicted grades. DD's school does a 'this is where you are now' grade, and then says progress is a max of a grade a year.

I suppose they don't want to predict as its all so new so it avoids them having to deal with 'but you said'...after results day.

DDs isn't a predicted grade as such as too early - but it is a target grade worked out on Sats results in YR6 plus any addition that teacher thinks is needed. DD didnt' do so well in her Maths Sats (got a 4) but was working at 5a so her actual target is 5 but teacher has upped to a 7 as that is where she believes she can get to at the moment, although she is working at a 6 currently. English and Science is 7 as she got 5s in Sats.

So her teachers believe she can achieve those grades if works hard etc but aren't saying she will achieve so not predicted.

Im guessing the predicted grades come after mocks in yr11? which is Jan at DDs school.

I know I haven't worded that very well, had a migraine earlier and am suffering the after effects.. (bit like a hangover the next day but without the fun of a night out)...

I have an able DC coasting too, but his report is mostly sitting at 4s and 5s (and a 3 in English). He should be capable of 7+, but at this point I'd happily take 6s ... (on the plus side, his end of Y9 report was mostly 3s and 4s so at least he is improving). I'm oscillating between trying to be laid back and not wanting to stress him out, and feeling he needs to knuckle down. Hard as there are still 18 months to go - I don't want him to burn out.

My dd are only predicted from base line tests like Yellis, Mellis, whatever they are called. with over sea students and some from UK who never did SATS they are based on this.
I'm not sure how reliable they are.
Dd said that since the report was written she is at the high end of the predicted already so for 4/5 she is a 5.
It's quite confusing and doesn't really tell you much.
I believe if they are working hard, doing some extra, handing in all homework and doing their best, the targets/ predictions mean nothing anyway.

My dd happily told me she got an A(-)/A- for her latest English essay! Apparently this is good as A is the highest and rarely given. The scale progresses through B++, B+ etc! GCSE numbers would be so much more straightforward!

whistl i haven't addressed with him yet, he's unwell so seems unfair! That is a good idea about the less academic options open to him, that might surprise him, the idea of not being able to stay at his sixth form, or move to another etc. thank you.

crazycrofter i will check on the requirements to stay on but it isn't super selective so should be fine (he's one of the brighter ones). Accountability is good idea but what do i do? Literally check it?

I like the idea someone said of an hour dedicated work that is checked each evening. Might be worth a try @Kaliforniadreamz

Yes Orange think he is currently doing homework alongside chatting on phone listening to music etc. i need to get him to do one thing at a time...
Just spoke to him about it very calmly and he is adamant they pick m=random numbers and he is all fine. GRRR.

Happy xmas lol

Haven't posted in a while. New Years resolution to keep up with this thread more effectively.

Ds isn't a coaster as such, but could apply himself better. For instance, he has an end of topic Chemistry test for a week on Friday (returns to school next Monday), but he won't do the sensible thing and revise at least a little over this holiday, he will wait until the night before (and I will have to chase him into bed at 11.30)

DS thinks tests don't matter, and he can't seem to get his head around the fact that he'll be facing a mountain of work next year if he leaves 10-20% of every subtopic, in every paper, in every subject unmastered.

It frustrates me that he seems to think that as long as he is in the top set and getting test results within the range of the rest of the class, then he has nothing more to achieve.

Ds has had a really good start to y10. He has been pretty diligent about homework and got a really good report (no predicted grades or target grades - just current ‘working at’ levels)
He has done literally no work over the break. He says he hasn’t been set any (y8 dd in same school says same) and he doesn’t seem to feel that maybe this is an opportunity to do some revision/ make notes etc. Not sure if the teachers wanted them to have proper time off or if he should be doing some study. Part of me thinks I should push him to do something and part of me thinks he’s a good kid and should be allowed to chill out at Christmas.

I think, if he hasn't been set work over the holidays and he has worked hard in term 10 then its fine for him to kick back and relax Jam

Ds does have a chem test the week he gets back so the only thing I require of him is that he does some revision before term starts on Monday, rather than being a last minute Charlie. After nagging him, cajoling him with a bacon sandwich and threatening to switch of the wifi he has just done a 30 minute revision session and it feels a bit like I have won the lottery

year 10 not term 10

I could've written Limitisup's post Word for Word! I'd only substitute the word "Biology" for Chemistry.

I wish DD had done 30 mins revision these holidays! She has at least done quite of bit of homework but still got lots of Maths to complete as well as revising for Biology & PE tests - shame it's already Sunday....

Heifer - it took a lot of persuasion, and yesterday he faked a headache to avoid a second revision period. He's done 45 minutes today though - winner! He had barely any holiday homework though so the revision is all that he has had to tackle

LOL at faking headache. DD still hasn't started the revision but has completed her Maths homework (had 150 questions on Mathswatch), she also had quite a lot of English homework re Macbeth so that is also done. Seems that she plans to do PE revision tonight and Biology during the week as test isn't until Friday.... I just wish she would take revision as seriously as she does the homework.. On the plus side, we had a lovely Christmas break although she is now knackered as had a 2 day hockey camp followed by a sleepover... Think she will sleep well tonight. But not looking forward to getting her up tomorrow morning :-)

Posted near the start of the thread and think I need to start being a little bit more proactive. DS has requested revision books for biology and physics so must sort, chemistry he has already.

We get assorted numbers on half termly reports. Minimum expected grade which I think are off SATs and CATs, aspirational target grade, current grade and expected grade. All a load of bollocks really and according to that his expected grade for the English Lang and Lit plus physics are a grade below minimum expected progress.

Don’t really rate the school plus still have the hump over no Computer Science GCSE. Going to look at a 6th form this week as their open evening is late In year compared to others so we’re going to do it now rather than next year. Sort of feel DS might prefer College but only decent one is a long bus ride so not sure. Time going so fast I can see it being year 11 before we know it !

Time does seem to be going fast I agree @PostNotinHaste! DD not even back until tomorrow. I'm slightly annoyed with her atm I keep on finding bits of paper around which are obviously exercises from her CBT counsellor which she admits she 'forgets' or 'cant be bothered' to do - the sessions are expensive. She is supposed to be self teaching herself piano/keyboard skills for DoE in anticipation of having lessons in Yr 11 to get her grading to Level 5 as she wants to do Music at Uni. This is not happening now apparently. I just get so frustrated. But she just acts like 'oh well that is just me and my bad habits' grrrrrr.

She really needs to organise herself better and she knows it but is acting really lazy about it all and it is so annoying as she knows how and what to do just frankly can't be arsed and would rather make youtube videos and angst about her lack of musical stardom. Raaaaaah.

Our dd isn’t back until tomorrow but we had the meltdown from her about school last night anyway as ds is back today - he didn’t get a look in!

She’s at a very selective school and she was very happy up to last year but this year the pressure seems to have kicked in and she’s really kicking against it (whilst doing all her homework). I can’t work out whether the teachers are really pressurising them or whether it’s coming from the girls / parents. She thinks theyre given too much homework too which may be true - but there’s also a lack of effficiency on her part which means she gets distracted /takes ages to get going and so ends up working late. She’s managed to have all weekends off so far though, so I don’t think the workload can be that bad.

Are other year 10s feeling pressured about GCSEs already? How much homework do your kids get? She’s got a couple of tests tomorrow and hasn’t done much revision so that’s part of the problem. Also, there are lots of very conscientious girls at her school, some of whom are already revising for end of year exams! It’s hard for us to work out the right balance when the average bar is set so high!

Is she a worrier crazycrofter - could she be escalating GCSE's worries in her head and making them a bigger 'problem' than they need to be? My dd (now year 12) used to do that - start feeling overwhelmed (when really there was not actual reason to be overwhelmed) and then stick her head in the sand and ignore her homework, thus exacerbating the situation

Answering your question about how much homework is set - ds seems to spend 1-1.5 hours on homework in the evenings and perhaps 4/5 hours at the weekend. I am confused by your dd's peers who are revising for end of year exams - since they won't have covered much of the material yet. If you prepare and revise properly for end of topic tests as you go along that is sufficient preparation for end of year exams at this stage (I think ds exams are around May so he might start doing something more formal after the half term, but only small amounts to begin with gradually increasing)

@crazycrofter one of the difficulties with Dd homework is that it is mostly online do not very tangible for me to assess how much she is doing. I think there was discussion earlier in thread about how much homework.

Of course there may be very conscientious girls talking about revising all the time , appearing to be working hard etc but I guess we must remember everyone has different ways of learning and your Dd needs to find best way for her.

Because my own Dd is on three year pathway it seems as if she has covered more and should know more iyswim that heightens anxiety around gcse..also study YouTubers and student room are not helpful in some ways...they give the impression kids should be doing loads of revision from January before gcses .

Dd school does go on about making revision cards, understanding subject before moving on...she constantly has tests but they are not the gcses and it is more important I feel to get into regular study habits rather than frantically trying to get As in every end of term test and risking burnout

Just found this!
Have a stressed out DD! They are doing the EBacc so only doing 9 GCSE’s but one is a compulsory language which she hates and sees no use of.
Have an elevate seminar next week to go to so that we can see how to help them acquire study skills...

I just don't get it. Most posters are doing 1.5 hours each night and 4-5 at weekends?

Ds1 seems to do hardly any homework. 1/2 and hour here and there, 1 hour from time to time.

I suspect he looks at you tube or Instagram or some shitty website and copies someone else's homework, practically entirely. but seriously no teacher has ever confirmed my suspicions.

He got his report. Doing well. Coasting a lot. I wasn't impressed. I showed it to my friend whose son is in Year 11. She said 'blimey that's good' = maybe I have unrealistic expectations.

I just don't know. How am I supposed to know?

I emailed his HoY to turn down his DoE silver place. He's so lazy, done nothing to arrange any of his commitments. Whereas I've been running around the charity shops etc trying to sort it all out. in the end I just thought this is ridiculous. I'm not doing this anymore. Dh agreed.